Gothic Open World Review

What makes a game a game? Do you need a story? A main character? A living world? How much can you strip away from a game, and still have fun? That’s a question that simply must be asked with a game like Gothic Open World. This Gothic Open World review seeks to determine if the game holds up to the lineage of its name.

Your Mission

We realized early on in this Gothic Open World review that the game’s mission really is what you make of it. This game is largely a playground for the player, with nothing there to hold his or her hand. There is no goal here, no main quest – not even a series of missions. There is nothing to accomplish outside of what the player wishes to accomplish. This is entirely emergent game play that puts the responsibility of crafting a narrative on the shoulders of the player.

Design & Graphics

The best way to describe the design philosophy of this game would be to invoke the oft-used gaming buzzword ‘sandbox’. This game truly is a sandbox, in that it is entirely empty and available for the player to use as he or she sees fit. It is not so sophisticated as to actually allow the player to interact with much of the world, but there are also very few limits. It’s simply an open world for the player to enjoy at his or her leisure.

The graphics aren’t terribly impressive. While the bar is traditionally lowered for mobile games, this game looks like it was developed several generations back. The buildings are unimpressive and plain while the backgrounds are as basic as one could get. Given that the only thing the game actually offers the player is the scenery, this definitely isn’t a good sign.

If there was to be a solid comparison made, one would be best served looking at this game as a tech demo. There’s nothing to interact with, but the player can still move. The game feels very unfinished, as if it was the early stages of development. While there was clear care put into building a world, it seems like the job just never got finished before release.

Main Characters

Most app-based games don’t really have a main character. They either put the player in charge of a totally generic main character or allow the player to play as an avatar. This is the nature of this type of gaming and something that this Gothic Open World review doesn’t hold against the game. One should, however, be aware that Gothic Open World doesn’t exactly feature a main character.

The lack of a main character is not necessarily the biggest problem that this game has. In fact, it’s probably a nod towards reality that the programmer didn’t take any extra time to really make players care about this character. Instead, the game is entirely focused on movement – and that generally means no time to stop and learn more about players.

There are no other characters in the game to bog it down. This is an empty world, devoid of people. It’s meant to be that way, at least, so there’s nothing missing. Since your player character won’t be running into anyone else, the character is even more a cipher than normal.

This game’s lack of a main character isn’t anything special. There’s no growth to be had here, so the lack of investment in that kind of writing isn’t surprising. It’s just part of how the game is designed.

Storyline

This Gothic Open World review began with a fairly open mind. While the game is a free app, there was something about the Gothic label that made it easy to believe that there would be a good story. Was it going to be as good as a PC release? Maybe not. It was assumed, though, that it would still present some kind of story.

Gothic Open World does not have a story. It does not have missions. It does not, in short, have most of what one would expect when looking for a game. To say that the world is empty would be something of an understatement. It’s hard to figure out what one is actually supposed to do in this game – if anything at all.

If there is a story, it’s about movement. You have the freedom to run and jump around the architecture in the game. That’s about it. There’s not a real reason to do so, nor is there any real incentive. There’s probably something to be said for a game that allows for a true sandbox, but most players come in expecting some kind of reward for their efforts. There is literally no difference in this game whether or not it is played.

Additional Versions

This Gothic Open World review has found no other versions of the game available. Be warned that several non-store sites advertise further free versions of the game even though the game’s free through legitimate storefronts. These downloads tend to be infected with malware, so install them at your own risk.

Final Thoughts

It’s hard to look at this game and not feel disappointed. While it might do well enough on its own terms, the fact that it includes the Gothic name makes it impossible to judge in a vacuum. This is simply another app that has a popular name and trades on that instead of trying to succeed on its own merits. As far as this Gothic Open World review is concerned, Gothic – and all of its fans – simply deserve more than this game is willing to give.

Did you see something that our Gothic Open World review has missed? Were we off base, or did you have a similar experience? Did we miss the point of this game? Make sure to get in contact to let us know what you think about this game.